This review explores imaging's crucial role in acute Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) assessment. High Resolution Computer Tomography is especially effective in detection of lung abnormalities. Chest radiography has limited utility in the initial stages of COVID-19 infection.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis is a review of research on "Precision Behavioral Management" of substance use disorder (SUD). America is experiencing a high prevalence of substance use disorder, primarily involving legal and illegal opioid use. A 3000% increase in treatment for substance abuse has occurred between 2000 and 2016.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The risk for all addictive drug and non-drug behaviors, especially, in the unmyelinated Prefrontal Cortex (PFC) of adolescents, is important and complex. Many animal and human studies show the epigenetic impact on the developing brain in adolescents, compared to adults. Some reveal an underlying hyperdopaminergia that seems to set our youth up for risky behaviors by inducing high quanta pre-synaptic dopamine release at reward site neurons.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDuring Lucid Dreams, the dreamer is aware, experiences the dream as if fully awake, and may control the dream content. The dreamer can start, stop, and restart dreaming, depending on the nature and pleasantness of the dream. For patients with Reward Deficiency Syndrome (RDS) behaviors, like Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Tourette's- Syndrome, and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), the dream content may be pleasant, unpleasant, or terrifying.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The search for an accurate, gene-based test to identify heritable risk factors for Reward Deficiency Syndrome (RDS) was conducted based on hundreds of published studies about the role of dopamine in addictive behaviors, including risk for drug dependence and compulsive/impulsive behavior disorders. The term RDS was first coined by Blum's group in 1995 to identify a group of behaviors with a common neurobiological mechanism associated with a polymorphic allelic propensity for hypodopaminergia.
Objectives: To outline the process used to select risk alleles of reward genes for the Genetic Addiction Risk Score (GARS) test.
Background/aims: This case series presents the novel Genetic Addiction Risk Score (GARS®) coupled with a customized pro-dopamine regulator matched to polymorphic reward genes having a hypodopaminergic risk.
Methods: The proband is a female with a history of drug abuse and alcoholism. She experienced a car accident under the influence and voluntarily entered treatment.
It is universally agreed that dopamine is a major neurotransmitter in terms of reward dependence, however, there remains controversy regarding how to modulate its role clinically to treat and prevent relapse for both substance and non-substance-related addictive behaviors. It is also agreed by most that there is a need to provide early genetic identification possibly through a novel researched technology referred to Genetic Addiction Risk Score(GARS).™ The existing FDA-approved medications promote blocking dopamine, however, we argue that a more prudent paradigm shift should be biphasic-short-term blockade and long-term upregulation, enhancing functional connectivity of brain reward.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe well-researched pro-dopamine regulator KB220 and variants result in increased functional connectivity in both animal and human brains, and prolonged neuroplasticity (brain cell repair) having been observed in rodents. Moreover, in addition to increased functional connectivity, recent studies show that KB220Z increases overall brain connectivity volume, enhances neuronal dopamine firing, and eliminates lucid dreams in humans over a prolonged period. An unprecedented number of clinical studies validating this patented nutrigenomic technology in re-balancing brain chemistry and optimizing dopamine sensitivity and function have been published.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe brain regions tied to pleasure can be triggered by engaging in sex, eating tasty food, watching a movie, accomplishments at school and athletics, consuming drugs, and noble efforts to help the community, the country, and the world. It is noteworthy that research suggests that the latter type of satisfaction, supporting the community, may result in the most substantial positive effects on our immune system. However, these pathways for these effects are not understood.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWith aging, there is decline in both short-term and long-term memory. This effect is magnified by epigenetic insults on specific, dopamine- related genes (e.g.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIt is a reality that globally opioid deaths have soared for men and women of all social, economic status and age from heroin and fentanyl overdoses. Specifically, in the United States, deaths from narcotic overdoses have reached alarming metrics since 2010. In fact, the Fentanyl rise is driven by drug dealers who sell it as heroin or who use it to lace cocaine or to make illegal counterfeit prescription opioids.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground Addictive-like behaviors (e.g., hoarding and shopping) may be the result of the cumulative effects of dopaminergic and other neurotransmitter genetic variants as well as elevated stress levels.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: We are facing a significant challenge in combatting the current opioid and drug epidemic worldwide. In the USA, although there has been notable progress, in 2017 alone 72,000 people died from a narcotic overdose. The NIAAA & NIDA continue to struggle with innovation to curb or eliminate this unwanted epidemic.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlzheimer's disease is an irreversible, progressive brain disorder that slowly destroys cognitive skills and the ability to perform the simplest tasks. More than 5 million Americans are afflicted with Alzheimer's; a disorder which ranks third, just behind heart disease and cancer, as a cause of death for older people. With no real cure and in spite of enormous efforts worldwide, the disease remains a mystery in terms of treatment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe interaction of neurotransmitters and genes that control the release of dopamine is the Brain Reward Cascade (BRC). Variations within the BRC, whether genetic or epigenetic, may predispose individuals to addictive behaviors and altered pain tolerance. This discussion authored by a group of concerned scientists and clinicians examines the Genetic Addiction Risk Score (GARS), the first test to accurately predict vulnerability to pain, addiction, and other compulsive behaviors, defined as Reward Deficiency Syndrome (RDS).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe principal vector of Lyme disease in the United States is Ixodes scapularis: black legged or deer ticks. There is increased evidence that those infected may be plagued by anxiety or depression as well. Researchers have identified transcripts coding for two putative cytosolic sulfotransferases in these ticks, which recognized phenolic monoamines as their substrates.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFollowing 25 years of extensive research by many scientists worldwide, a panel of ten reward gene risk variants, called the Genetic Addiction Risk Score (GARS), has been developed. In unpublished work, when GARS was compared to the Addiction Severity Index (ASI), which has been used in many clinical settings, GARS significantly predicted the severity of both alcohol and drug dependency. In support of early testing for addiction and other RDS subtypes, parents caught up in the current demographic of 127 people, both young and old, dying daily from opiate/opioid overdose, need help.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Reward Defic Syndr Addict Sci
December 2017
The slaughters in Las Vegas and Sutherland Springs demand explanation, in the face of the ineffable. An understanding of the shooters' motives could restore our trust in our mutually cooperative existence. In this short communication we provide post-hoc rationale of both Stephen Paddock (Las Vegas mass shooting) and Devin Kelley (Southerland Springs mass shooting) and hypothesize that these shooters had genetically induced "Reward Deficiency Syndrome" (RDS) and a hypodopaminergia trait/state.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: There is need for better treatments of addictive behaviors, both substance and non-substance related, termed Reward Deficiency Syndrome (RDS). While the FDA has approved pharmaceuticals under the umbrella term Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT), these drugs are not optimal.
Objectives: It is our contention that these drugs work well in the short-term by blocking dopamine function leading to psychological extinction.
Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) often continues into adulthood. Recent neuroimaging studies found lowered baseline dopamine tone in the brains of affected individuals that may place them at risk for Substance Use Disorder (SUD). This is an observational case study of the potential for novel management of Adult ADHD with a non-addictive glutaminergic-dopaminergic optimization complex KB200z.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe purpose of this project was to study the efficacy of quantitative muscle hardness (QH) curve analysis for noninvasive measurement of muscle compartment interstitial pressure (IMP), and to eliminate the need for a comparison normal QH measurement to determine a pathologic reading. Elevation of IMP may lead to limb compartment syndrome, which may result in irreversible dysfunction, chronic pain and contracture. Two studies were performed by two separate independent examiners on male volunteers, where IMP measurements and QH curves were obtained.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Proximal interphalangeal (PIP) joint fracture-dislocations are complex injuries, and successful surgical treatment can be challenging. The hamate appears to be an appropriate graft based on its general shape and dimensions. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the rationale and suitability of the hamate as an autograft for proximal interphalangeal joint fracture-dislocations and to determine the inherent stability of the donor site after graft harvesting.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe purpose of this project was to study a noninvasive method of evaluating limbs at risk of compartment syndrome. Untreated limb compartment syndrome may lead to irreversible dysfunction, chronic pain and contracture. An improved means of obtaining quantitative hardness measurements is reported.
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